Ok, I have a few wishes for the PA80. Love the sounds. When I listen to musical pieces that I have created and subsequently saved in wav format using the PA80, as compared to similar projects I have done with the PSR 740, MZ2000 and even one with a PSR9k, I am very happy with the instrument sounds of the PA80 overall.

Korg could have done a little more in the feature dept though BEFORE releasing the board. Ok they have caught up somewhat and I realize it still may be in its' O/S infancy so to speak, and maybe I'm asking a bit much for a sampling feature to be added at this time, especially when there are a few other basic things it is lacking, but at the very least I'd like it to be able to match some of the features that my MZ2000 from Casio had. The sound editing is great and there are many good samples to work with, but the dual sequencers are a bit of overkill for me, although they might work nice for a solo musician. I would like to see full event editing to note level. You can delete events at this point but cannot insert notes. Even though it isn't that big a deal because I have several software sequencers, Sometimes I like working with a board away from my computer. I barely even needed an external sequencer with the MZ2k. Also the step editing for the pattern sequencer only has a resolution of 192 ticks. The MZ 2000 was much better in this dept. In fact it had full event editing down to one tick. It also had a true midi file to style feature built in, although you can do this ( with many more added steps ) by using the software stykle to midi converter provided on the PA80s website. The other thing I really miss is a master EQ, a seperate eq for each track and a host of other master dsp settings and effects that the MZ had. Even the PSR740 has a master EQ setting, and with tagalong software like xg edit or xg works, much can be done to really spice up and enhance the styles and sounds. On the other hand, the PA80's styles already sound great to me as is ( unlike the 740 and especially the MZ ), but I want to have those EQ effects so that I can tweak. I can do a little bit of eq tweaking with the internal effects, but not every instrument I use has an effect applied to it, and even when they do it's a long process to tweak the effects EQ. Also 2 fill ins per style just doesn't get it sometimes. I don't use the styles all that much for composing, ( but some are so good that I have used them with little modificcation at all ) but they are very good for scratch pad ideas and great just to play along to, so another fill in or two would be very useful.

OK that's my wish list. Yes, sampling would be great too, or ability to use the pcmmia card slot to load my own samples ( which Korg states is connected to the tone generator, but first I'd like to see the other items I mentioned above addressed.

In spite of this I am VERY happy with the board. I have no intention of trading it away. I have been spending nearly all of my free time as of late playing and composing on it, hence I haven't been on the forum much at all lately. There is no comparison coming from a PSR740 ( which I still have and find to be useful for a few of its sounds ), and an MZ2000, which I no longer have but would have kept ( loved the features ) if it had better sounds overall ( some were actually rather good, especially that feedback guitar ) and Casio could have shown just an inkling of after market product support.

AJ ( Bluezplayer )

[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 08-03-2001).]